Seca: Nova Zelândia / Drought in New Zealand

Farmers in New Zealand rejoiced in mid-April 2013 when rains started to break one of the worst droughts to hit the country in decades.
Much of the country reached drought status in late February and
experienced unusually low levels of rain throughout the summer. The
situation on North Island, in particular, worsened throughout March. By
early April, climate and weather experts had started calling it the
worst drought on North Island in 70 years. The area around Wellington, for instance, saw no rainfall at all between February 13 and March 17.
A significant portion of North Island is comprised of grassland that
farmers used as pastureland. Most of the pasturelands are not irrigated
and depend on rainfall. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra
satellite captured these glimpses of the drought’s impact. The
landscape in the top image, acquired on April 10, 2013, was considerably
browner than in April 2009 (a more typical year). The light green
areas, where changes are most noticeable, are mainly pastoral landscapes
populated by sheep, cattle, and deer farmers. The darker areas without
significant changes in greenness are forests.
The drought has been attributed to the presence of a high-pressure
area that lingered over New Zealand throughout the summer, causing low
pressure areas—and the associated rainfall they bring—to skirt either
side of the country.